Africa: Businesses Show Growing Interest in Social Responsibility

Source from:  United States Department of State (Washington, DC) 12 December 2007 12/14/2007

Companies that go beyond the "bottom line" in making profits and work to improve society at large, a practice known as corporate social responsibility (CSR), can achieve this result in different ways. Speaking at a CSR panel discussion at the December 3-5 Miami Conference on the Caribbean Basin, Patricia Canessa de Rivera explained how her firm, the Chevron Corporation, aims to better society with a global safety program to decrease the number of fatalities and injuries worldwide due to road crashes. Canessa, based in El Salvador as Chevron's policy, government and public affairs manager for Central America, told USINFO that her company is involved in the CSR matter of preventing road crashes because it promotes public safety. Road crashes are a growing global problem, said Canessa. If no "significant interventions" are made to tackle the problem by 2020, she said, road traffic accidents will rank as Number 3 in causing deaths and injuries worldwide, as compared to its 1990 ranking of Number 9. Citing figures from the World Health Organization, Canessa said road crashes cost the world an estimated $518 billion per year. Canessa said Chevron's Arrive Alive program, created in 2004, partners with local governments, nongovernmental organizations and private sector companies to define the road safety issues in a specific country and develop an action plan to address the problem. Canessa said Arrive Alive operates in South Africa, Uganda, Nigeria and Guatemala and is starting a program in El Salvador, with plans to expand in 2008 to Panama and the Dominican Republic. Road safety is a "huge issue" in Central America and the Caribbean, where traffic laws are often outdated or local authorities may lack the equipment to enforce the laws, said Canessa. Addressing the issue involves changing driver behavior on the roads and creating awareness by nations of the need to adopt road safety action plans, she said. The U.S. government is also working worldwide to raise awareness and promote education about road safety. For example, the U.S. Agency for International Development works in East and Central Africa to promote community participation on road safety, which includes educational brochures in French and English. (See related article.) CSR FOR SMALLER COMPANIES Graco Paredes, CSR manager for the international tobacco group British American Tobacco, with headquarters in London, told USINFO that many big companies and organizations are at least familiar with, if not already practicing social responsibility. The challenge now, said Paredes, who is based in Costa Rica, is to get new smaller and medium-size companies to understand the idea as well, even as they have other priorities in "trying to make ends meet." Paredes, who moderated the CSR discussion at the Miami conference, said the practice is often misunderstood. Many people, he said, mistakenly confuse CSR with philanthropy. (See related article.) CSR is not about "giving away money or donations," said Parades, but rather about promoting development while protecting the interests of consumers and the natural environment. Jacqueline Coke-Lloyd from the Jamaican Employers Federation said at the Miami panel discussion that CSR is essential for companies, no matter their size or location. CSR, she said, should be a "business-led response" that involves reshaping companies' "strategic relationships, operations, marketing strategies and corporate culture." Coke-Lloyd said CSR initiatives for smaller companies in Jamaica are community-based, involved with the creation of a "healthy" workplace, "a fair distribution of wealth and protection of the environment." Another panelist, Donna E. Chung, presented CSR as a development issue, saying the private sector, especially small- and medium-size enterprises, plays an "integral role in the economic growth of developing countries." Chung, a trade and labor compliance adviser in the Washington office of the Sandler, Travis and Rosenberg international trade and business firm, explained during her presentation how a Haitian apparel manufacturer's adoption of CSR measures paid off for his company. Production cycle time was shortened, and the owner was rewarded with happier workers in his factory, Chung said. Roy Thomasson, founder of the Young Americas Business Trust, said changing the term "corporate social responsibility" might make it better understood. "The social part [of the term] can stay, [but] the responsibility part sounds like we're trying to pass everything off to the businesses to be responsible for the community. I don't think that's quite the idea," said Thomasson, whose group, affiliated with the Organization of American States, promotes entrepreneurship for young people. In a jocular comment that drew laughs from those in the packed conference room, Thomasson said that perhaps the new term should be "Caribbean social responsibility," adding that another possibility is "business and social action." The point, said Thomasson, is that the term "corporate" suggests that CSR "is good for Chevron or Exxon[Mobil Corporation], but that it has nothing to do" with smaller enterprises. "We have to find a definition that works," he said, emphasizing that CSR has to be part of a company's "core business policy" that "benefits the community." In the end, said Thomasson, CSR is "about people, whether they are customers or buyers," or employers or employees. Enditem